Shimmer like a Girl
by spazzfrk
Summary: Songfic: Shimmer like a Girl by Veruca Salt


Disclaimer: Veruca Salt owns the song, Shimmer like a Girl and Klasky Csupo owns Rocket Power and it's characters  
  
Reggie Rocket was the new flaunty beauty queen of Ocean Shores High School. She had a place to be and a time to be there. Her status at the school was what one would think only exists in movies about the exceedingly popular and superior girls that people feared to even look at. Her image was not the same tomboy-Reggie-Rocket it had always been. Her attitude was no longer the follow-the-Golden-Rule attitude it had always been. She got so caught up in following the crowd that she worked her way to head of the crowd and she naturally developed the I'm-so-high-and-mighty mentality. She hadn't noticed what she was doing to herself but others did. Others like... Otto, Twister, Sam, and... Lars.  
  
It was Friday, lunch time and Reggie was surrounded by a crowd of people. The majority of them were bad people too, people that were involved in things like drugs, stealing, alcohol and... ahem... other things. They were liars and cheaters and thieves but to Reggie, they were willing to bow down to her so they were friends.  
  
Lars was sitting by himself in the Senior lounge, drawing. He had calmed down quite a bit as he got older and he got bored of being around Pi and Sputz. He got into the arts, things like theatre, ceramics, music, graphic design, but his favorite kind of art was drawing. He was so good at drawing, he liked to just sit around and draw people at lunch even though they didn't know they were being drawn. In looking through his sketchbook, he found a lot of pictures of Reggie. He liked Reggie... well, the real Reggie. Not the lame, synthetic, giggling, layered on make up Reggie. He had gotten really attached to the genuine Reggie. It started in their sophomore year when they began to get close. Reggie was looking for some time to get peace and relaxation, away from all the action, extreme sports, and rowdy boys for a little while. So she took drawing class instead of Gym for one of her electives. She found that everything didn't always have to be so fast paced and she also found out that Lars had a side that didn't like to whomp people... or even bother them. They became really close friends that year.  
  
They were close... until one day in their junior year she came into drawing class, crying. It was the first period of the day so it was the first time he had seen her that day. "What's the matter, Reg?" Lars said finally looking up from his scenery drawing to see Reggie's wet eyes and burning cheeks. She told him in fragments and hiccups that some kids were bothering her the day before and asking her why she was slowly turning into a guy. Then they started messing around and some of the girls tied her up and put paint all over her and then poured glitter on her. It got in her eyes and mouth and she started coughing and they just stood there and laughed. She couldn't identify the people to the authorities but she knew they went to her school. Lars hugged her but she was still upset and that was the last day she went to drawing class. In fact she didn't go to school for two weeks. When she came back... there was a girl that shimmered and shined. Like a girl should.  
  
Now, a year later, Lars was fed up with the new and improved Reggie. He had a perfect view of Reggie from the Senior lounge. Her clothes were tight and she acted like a lame ditz, he could hardly handle it. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed her cell... for the first time in a year. He still knew it by heart. He could see her whip out her phone dramatically and the surrounding people watched her, impressed. Lars knew she would hang up if she knew it was him so he made his voice sound a little muffled.  
  
"Hey Reg." "Who's this?" she looked puzzled. "It's... uh Trent." Reggie squealed in delight. "What's going on, Trent?" she said 'Trent' very loudly and the girls that circled her nearly fainted. Lars rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I was wondering if you could meet me at the Shack Café after school today... alone?" Reggie began twirling her hair in her fingers and giggling. "Ok... handsome." Lars hung up. He thought he might barf... I am going to save her if it's the last thing I do.  
  
-At the Café-  
  
Reggie arrived first and she sat alone at a table, admiring herself in a small compact mirror. Lars walked up and just sat down at her table. Reggie didn't know what to say, she was so shocked. She looked at Lars as though he was a disgusting piece of trash. "What do you think you are doing?" she sneered. "I have a date, sorry not interested." She was so snotty and stuck up when she said it that Lars had a mind to just get up and leave her there waiting for her date that would never come. But he knew she wasn't being Reggie and if he just got to the bottom of it, he could get his best friend back.  
"Reggie, simmer down. I'm not here to grovel to you." Lars said aggressively. Reggie looked away and threw up a you're-really-boring-me attitude. "Look Reggie, I want to know why you are not being yourself and why you're trying impress people that you don't really care about and that don't even care about you?" Reggie rolled her eyes.  
  
:::::::IT'S A SHAME YOU HAVE A MIND OF YOUR OWN NOW. SHAME ON YOU, COMPLETELY SETTING THE TONE NOW.:::::::  
"Are you finished?" Reggie started looking in her mirror again.  
"Reggie, remember how much fun we used to have? Surfing, skating, snowboarding, drawing?" she seemed to be listening even though she was still facing the other way. "Remember when you didn't have to try so hard to have fun? You could be you and the guys would love you and always try to pull off the tricks that you did?" Reggie rolled her eyes again.  
"You don't know the first thing about my life. I know where I belong and it's not with the guys. I was never one of the guys, you know why?? I'm a girl."  
"Reg, have you ever in your entire life been a male?" Lars inquired formally.  
Reggie looked at him like he was stupid, "Duh, of course not you moron."  
"sooo, you're saying that even when you were pulling a 360 method over the launchbox, you were still a girl? And where you still a girl when you rode 30 foot waves? How does treating people like crap and strutting around like your better than everyone else make you more of a girl? Does it make you more of a girl to let guys take advantage of you to show your friends that you aren't prude?" Lars was getting louder and louder as he pressed on and Reggie was doing her best to ignore him and not say a word but she began to tremble a little. "REGGIE! You are having the most miserable time of your life and making everyone around you miserable. Why don't you grow up and stop acting like everyone owes you??"  
  
:::::::I'VE CAUGHT YOU BLEEDING UNDER MY SKIN NOW. I FOUGHT YOU BUT YOU'RE BEGINNING TO WIN NOW.:::::::  
  
Lars had meant for this to be a civil, calm talk but he got worked up and Reggie was near to tears. He found that he was standing up and his face was flushed. Reggie quickly gathered herself and remembered to hide her emotion.  
"Get away from me Lars. I don't have to listen to anything you say because I know what I am and I also know that it's people like you that get trampled on and stepped all over. It's people like you that get painted and suffocated because you are trying to be what you're not." She pulled out her compact mirror again and began fixing her eye make up.  
  
:::::::WELL I DON'T CARE, I SWEAR IT'S MY TURN NOW. SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YEAH. SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YEAH. SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YOU GOTTA GET IT GLIMMER, SHIMMER, SPARKLE WHILE YOU CAN.:::::::  
  
Lars got up and turned. "See ya later Reg." Lars walked for a few hours to get his thoughts sorted out. Then he stopped by his house to pick up his sketchbook, pencils, and pastels and he headed to the beach. The sun was going down so the sky was an array of colors and mostly a settled purple. Lars sat down on the beach to draw Otto, Twister, and Sam surfing. He looked at the finished product and it didn't look finished at all. He didn't know exactly what was missing. He was trying to figure how to reshape the water in the picture when the boys came up. Otto, Twister, and Sam had kind of come to some kind of truce with Lars and if they didn't annoy him, he wouldn't harm them. Sam sat down on one side of him and Twister sat on the other. Otto just sat right in front of Lars. They were always really interested in Lars' art because it wasn't consistent; it changed constantly. Otto, naturally, liked the pictures of him the most but he respected Lars for his creativity. "Whoa." Twister said looking at a replicate image of them. The use of pastels was amazing. The hardest part of drawing with pastels is not smearing it everywhere and on Lars' there was not a trace of smudge. "That's were Reggie would be," Sam sighed pointing to a spot in the middle of the wave. Twister punched Sammy in the arm as Otto's face turned red. "Don't ever say the name of that lame-o poseur shoobie in front of me again." Otto had gotten up and was stomping away heatedly. Twister got up to follow Otto and repair the damage but Lars grabbed his sleeve to halt him. "Let him go, he needs to be alone." Lars began a new sketch. It was an assortment of flowers. There were actually 4 flowers. One of them was a large, blooming hibiscus that was taking up a large portion of the depiction. It wasn't fully in bloom yet but when it finally did, it would be amazing. The second one was a lilac that didn't take up very much of the picture but despite all its simplicity and vagueness it was very beautiful. The third flower was a small plump cherry blossom. The flower itself reminds people to take time and love the beauty of life. If it was a person, a cherry blossom would be the wise one to give everyone advice. The last flower was a rose. The rose wasn't however beautiful, it was wilted and dying. But when one looked at it, they knew it was once a beautiful, sturdy work of nature.  
  
Reggie passed by the beach with a group of "friends." They were laughing and pointing at a girl that tripped on her skateboard and was near to tears because her knee was bleeding profusely and she was humiliated. At first, Reggie looked hesitant to laugh at the girl but when her friends looked at her skeptically she giggled lamely. ::::::WELL, I DON'T CARE, I SWEAR IT'S MY TURN NOW. SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YEAH. SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YEAH. SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YOU GOTTA GET IT GLIMMER, SHIMMER, SPARKLE WHILE YOU CAN.::::::  
  
-The Next Day-  
  
Lars was pulling an energy drink out of the vending machine with his left and the books in his right hand tumbled and fell with a loud crash on the linoleum. Reggie was on the other side of the hall. She looked around to see if any of her friends were there and decided that they weren't. She walked casually over to Lars and leaned down to pick up one of his books. She smiled when she saw the title, Allengrove. When they were in drawing class together, they always used Allengrove's graphite drawings as references. Lars smiled at her smile and she quickly resumed her cocky attitude and thrust the book at Lars. It irritated him at first but he told himself that he was going to fix it.  
"You can borrow my Allengrove book if you want-" he began politely but she cut him off.  
"What would I do with your stupid book?" she huffed. This time, Lars couldn't control his anger.  
"What's the matter with you? I can deal with the fact that you gave up your image and maybe even your sports but why did you give up your passion? You love art and you know so much about it, you always could look at it differently than anyone else." Reggie tapped her foot impatiently. "Don't you get it?? not many people have that and you are going to just throw it away??" Reggie backed up a step because Lars was inching towards her the madder he got. She didn't answer him but her expressions were starting to show a little emotion.  
  
:::::::SHAME CRASHING, FALLING OFF THE TRACKS NOW::::::  
  
"I never even liked art, I just said I did cause I felt sorry for you that you were such a loser and no one liked you." She sneered. This hit Lars a little close to home.  
"Then, what's your excuse for hurting Raymundo? And your own little  
brother? Raymundo can hardly bear a thought of you because he's  
ashamed of the way you treat people and the way you treat him. Face  
the facts Reggie, you've turned into a self-centered, cold-hearted,  
relentless devil."  
  
::::::GET CRACKING AT THE SMALL OF MY BACK NOW::::::  
  
Reggie looked like she had been slapped in the face numerous times.  
Her self-esteem may have been down there but that's nowhere compared  
to where it was when Lars was through with her. He knew he wasn't  
getting anywhere by telling her what a horrible person she is so he  
apologized. Her eyes were welling up.  
"I'm sorry, Reg. You're not a devil. I was... I just don't like  
the way you've changed."  
"Well deal with it Lars! Because that's who I am now. Just stop  
trying to change me." Lars nodded. He smoothly and swiftly embraced  
Reggie in a tight hug. Reggie was instantly reminded of the last time  
they hugged, he had made her feel better but she had failed to make  
herself feel better. She let go of her representation and the show  
she put on for other people and remembered her old friend.  
"Reggie!!" a shrill voice broke the silence. Reggie broke away  
from Lars's hug. She had to think fast so she slapped him across the  
face.  
"Don't ever touch me again you freak!" Reggie turned to her  
friends and made a scene like Lars had jumped her and forced her to  
hug him but they definitely thought it was kinda sketchy.  
  
::::::I FAILED YOU AND THEY'RE BEGINNING TO TALK NOW.  
I NAILED YOU UNTIL YOU'RE WALKING THE WALK NOW::::::  
  
Reggie was treating people like crap no less. She was letting guys  
use her no less. She was making people feel low no less. She was  
feeling guilty A LOT MORE. Lars still watched her and he noticed that  
she looked longingly at reminders of things she still loved like  
sports, creative writing, and mostly drawing. Lars was on the verge  
of giving up because he was settling with the fact that he had made at  
least a tiny dent and she was now feeling bad about being the way she  
was to people. Lars began to study ceramics but found that it just  
wasn't the same as drawing. It was bothering him to think that maybe  
the only reason he loved drawing so much was because it made him feel  
closer to Reggie no matter the distance between them. Reggie glanced  
at him in his secluded corner with his sketchbook a lot. Every time  
he caught her looking, she would throw him a nasty look and whisper  
something to her friends causing them to start laughing and point at  
him.  
  
::::::WELL I DON'T CARE, I SWEAR IT'S MY TURN NOW.  
SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YEAH.  
SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YEAH.  
SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD.  
YOU GOTTA GET IT GLIMMER, SHIMMER, SPARKLE WHILE YOU CAN.::::::  
  
Reggie was at a party that Trent was throwing while his parents were gone. She didn't like what went on there but she had to suck it up and go with the flow. People were running around the house acting like barbarians... barbarians that were under the influence of alcohol. Some of Reggie's friends walked by without even acknowledging her. They were being led by a really pretty girl that Reggie had never seen before. Reggie lit up.  
"Hey girls, what's up?" She said loudly. The girls stopped and looked at her. They looked a little nervous and none of them spoke. "What's going on you guys?" Reggie asked, wondering why they were acting so weird. One of the more outspoken girls came forward. She tossed her hair and glared at Reggie.  
"Reggie, we've all been talking about it for a long time and... we don't think you should hang out with us anymore." The girl smiled viciously at Reggie's reaction. Reggie looked horrified.  
"What... why?"  
"Because, ok?" The girl turned and motioned for the rest to follow.  
  
Reggie never felt safe at these kinds of parties and she never had fun. And to top it off, she was alone now. The guys everywhere were always hitting on her and trying to get her to do things that were totally against all her morals. Trent came up to her and thank god, he was sober. Trent had been in New Zealand for about a month so the party was kind of a welcome home to him. Reggie got tongue-tied and wasn't sure what to say to him.  
"H-How was the surf?" she stuttered stupidly. Trent laughed.  
"Why do you care about the surf Regina?"  
"I-uh... I don't."  
"I didn't think you did. I mean, now that you're really a girl." He gave her a once over and smiled. "I just thought I would bring up a subject that interested you." She smiled feebly.  
"You know what really interests me," he moved a little closer to her... in fact, too close. Reggie definitely smelled the alcohol in his breath and she backed up in disgust.  
  
::::::SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YEAH. SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YEAH. SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YEAH. SHIMMER, SHIMMER LIKE A GIRL SHOULD, YEAH.::::::  
  
"What's the matter with you Reg?" Trent looked angry. Reggie thought about his question and she wondered, what is the matter with me? It dawned on her.  
"I'm a girl Trent. But I'm not this kind of girl." She was in a daze thinking about everything that had happened... thinking about all the people she had hurt... and about Lars. She ran out of the party without a word to her past year. She turned up at the beach with her surfboard and her hair in a tousled mess. Otto, Sam, and Twister were already out on the waves. When she paddled out, there was nothing but cheers, hugging, and a few tears. Otto by far had the most cheers, hugs, and tears. There was no one on the beach but Reggie knew who would turn up eventually because she had watched him every evening drawing away. While Reggie was enjoying herself and being a girl at the same time, Lars walked up to his normal spot with a perfect view of the surfers. He was in a relaxed mood as he drew his thoughts and problems away. He looked at a finished product of four live and blossoming flowers growing together and he felt accomplished.  
  
::::::SHIMMER, YEAH SHIMMER, YEAH SHIMMER LIKE A GOOD GIRL::::: 


End file.
